Terms of use

Preamble

Use of our forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to
our Forum Code of Conduct and Forum user Agreement. If you
violate the Code of Conduct or User Agreement, we reserve
the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without
prior notice. We prefer to advise users of inappropriate
behavior, however, flagrant and repeated violations of our
CoC will result in an immediate ban. Our failure to enforce
this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as
a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

Principle Guidelines

We created the Code of Conduct to provide a basic
understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our
forums. The following are the principle guidelines for the
establishment and enforcement of our CoC:

Ensure a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and
forum members

Ensure the privacy of our members and that of
others

Comply with existing laws

Encourage responsible use of our forums and
discourage activities which disrupt our community
and reduce the value of our services to our visitors

Encourage the freedom of expression and exchange
of information in a mature and responsible manner

What about free-speech?

While we are committed to the principles of free speech,
certain activities may be damaging to the resources of both
SWAT and our communities and cannot be permitted
under the guise of free speech. The resources of SWAT
are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a
negative impact on the entire community.

As a member of our vast forum community, you must
participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding
our CoC, please contact any of our forum moderators via
email.

Violations of the Code of Conduct

It is extremely important for you to
understand that this section of our Code of Conduct isn’t
designed to cover everything. We may take action — issue a
warning, ban your account(s) and/or IP addresses, lower your
post count, delete/edit your post(s)/thread(s), etc. — if
your conduct at SWAT is counterproductive to the Code
of Conduct’s principle
guidelines.

Unauthorized access / Forum Security

The following actions are strictly prohibited:

Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts
of other users

Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs,
vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are
disclosed or undisclosed

Penetrating, or attempting to penetrate, security
measures of SWAT's software or hardware, or
electronic communications system

All intrusions will subject all your forum accounts to
immediate termination, regardless of whether or not the
intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data.

Users are responsible for the security of their SWAT
accounts. Users may not share their passwords or transfer –
via any means – their accounts to others without the express
permission of the SWAT Forum Management Team. In
addition, users are responsible for all activity made by
him/her or anyone the user allows to use his/her account.

Usernames

Usernames must not be in violation of this Code of Conduct. We
reserve the right to terminate accounts whose associated usernames
are in violation of this Code of Conduct, or are otherwise deemed
inappropriate and/or potentially offensive. Users may be invited to
register under a new name at our discretion.

Ad Hominem

Ad Hominem comments/personal attacks towards anyone - staff,
forum member, or a visitor who is likely to view it on the
forums - is subject to the message being deleted and action
taken against the user, regardless of how pertinent or
thoughtful the rest of the message might be.

Spamming

Unless a thread or forum is designated as an area ok for
spamming, you may not spam. Spam includes, but is not
limited to, the following:

Excessive off-topic threads

Posting nonsensical messages

“Flooding” the forum with similar meaning
messages

Post-Count farming

Inciting a forum war or riot

Outwar-style links

Blatant advertising

Messages without content

Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain
letters, etc.)

Free-____ links (i.e. Free iPods, Free PSP, etc.
etc.)

Hereby it is said that certain areas of this forum are not
covered by these rules. The forum staff may allow Spam if
the flow of a discussion requires it.

Advertising

We want to avoid spam generated by promotion teams,
public-relations campaigns or any other traffic-hungry
webmasters. However we welcome Advertisement for
Modifications, Servers and any Projects related to games
that are covered by SWAT. You may submit news at the
submission boards which we will forward to the right area
once it got reviewed. We also permit discussions about your
own projects if the CoC is not violated by them.

“Piracy” is the illegal copying and/or distribution of
copyrighted content including, but not limited to, games,
software, music, movies, pictures, ROMs, abandon-ware, and
leaked software. “Cracks” are programs that disable
copy-protection technology; “Multiplayer Hacks” are any
programs, patches, files, modifications or information
exposure cheats that allow a player to gain an unfair
advantage over other human opponents in a multiplayer game;
a “Key” is a combination of numbers and letters that is
required for software installation and sometimes used to
validate users for online play; and “Key-Generators” are
programs that generate valid Keys.

You may not encourage, post in support of, link to, or
discuss activities, methods, and/or techniques involving
piracy, cracks, multiplayer hacks, keys and key-generators.
In addition, the following are grounds for moderator action
on your post and/or account:

Generally breaking this rule will result in an instant
permanent ban. However you may be given a warning for a
first offence if, in our opinion, you are a new forumer who
doesn’t understand why this is such a strict rule – this
will be explained to you; any subsequent offences will
result in a permanent ban.

Forgery or impersonation

Attempting to impersonate any person, including staff,
using forged headers, instant messenger names, similar
usernames (i.e. “GiIIB”, “Gi11B”, “Angel GillB”) in an
effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited.

Profanities

You may not use profanity or bypass the software-based
censor. In addition to words included in the censor list,
sexual remarks and slang may be considered profane when used
in certain contexts.

A word about what is considered to be bypassing the
software-based censor: Anything done to avoid the default
*'s provided by the censor is considered to be a bypass of
the censor. For example, if the word “angle” was in the
censor (it is not), then all of the following are considered
a bypass of the censor and thus in violation of the CoC:

A****

ang1e, angl3

anglë, añgle

a n g l e

[i]A[/i][i]n[/i]gle

angle

links to image containing the word “angle” used in
a demeaning context

The list of words automatically censored by our filter is
available upon request.

Harassment

You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to
ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs,
gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.

We have no tolerance for discrimination. You are in
violation of this rule if the nature of your post
discriminates, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates
hatred or discrimination against individuals, groups, races,
cultures or organizations because of their ethnic/national
origin, skin color or culture.

DEROGATORY TERMS

If you use any terms in an offensive context against a person,
race, culture, group or organization, as determined by our
moderators, you are in violation of this rule.

Please note that words carry different meanings in different
cultures, and that while a word may be acceptable use in one part of
the world, it may not be in another. In addition, any one can invent
their own derogatory terms, unfortunately. Because of those factors,
we will evaluate the context in which the term was used to determine
whether a violation has occurred.

Porn/Sexually Offensive Materials

You may not post or link to pornography or sexually
offensive materials. If you are unsure whether what you wish
to post may be in violation of this rule, please consult a
moderator first before posting. However, SWAT is a very
liberate community. Posting erotic images or images which
fall under the terms of "art" is permitted to certain areas
of this forum.

Offensive Images / Shock Sites

You may not post or link to shock sites, or any such
excessively obscene material. If you are unsure whether what
you wish to post may be in violation of this rule, please
consult a moderator first before posting. Blatant violations
of this rule will result in a permanent ban on your account.

Non-Disclosure Agreements

We will delete posts containing materials in breach of
active Non-Disclosure Agreements. We reserve the right to
cooperate with the companies in the investigation of any NDA
breach.

Privacy

You may not post any form of real life information
of a user unless the user has first permitted it by
express consent. Examples of real life information
include name, address, IP addresses, and phone
numbers.

You may not distribute any form of real life
information, email address, private/email Messages,
and Instant Messenger messages (“Chatlogs”) with
intent to harass or in any demeaning manner as
determined by a moderator, regardless of consent.

You may not disclose a user's unpublicized email
address unless the user has first permitted it,
either by actual consent or previously releasing
said information.

You may not post any form of real life information
if you are 13 or under.

Signatures

Signatures, whether facilitated by the forum software or by
the user, may not exceed the following restrictions:

The signature may not contain more than 15 lines
including blank lines

Signature images may not be larger than 600
pixels wide by 200 pixels high

The signature must not violate any part of this
CoC

Official Language

English is the official language of our forums because it is
the common language between our moderators and users.
Because we can not moderate conversations in a foreign
language, you may not hold a conversation in the forums in
language other than English except that forum board was
created for use with different languages. Foreign languages are
allowed in forum signatures as long as a.) it is not in
violation of the Code of Conduct, b.) not in a different
character set, i.e. áíúúíá éáéä,
c.) a correct translation is either included in the
signature (which should not take the signature beyond the
current 6 line limit) or is in the 'About Me' box of the
user's profile.

Email Addresses

You may not harvest email addresses from our
forums for any purpose

You are required to keep your forum account's
email address up-to-date. If a warning sent to the
email address on record bounces, your account will
be banned and you will have to contact the
Administrator (admin@swat-portal.com) to have your account unbanned

Illegal Use

You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, in support
of illegal activities, or encourage conduct that would
constitute a criminal offense. Such
activities will guarantee a ban. We reserve the right to
cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third
parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil
wrongdoing.

Moderation & Bans

You may not evade a ban. Doing so will
drastically lengthen your ban. If you believe your
actions were not in violation of this Code of
Conduct, you can appeal your ban by contacting the
Administrator (admin@swat-portal.com) .

You may not publicly complain about or demand a
reason for another user's ban, the deletion of a
message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any
discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion,
thread deletion and thread closure should be done
over private email between the person concerned and
the moderators

You may not re-edit a message that has been edited
by a moderator

You may not post a message on behalf of a banned forumer.

Miscellaneous

Do not post negative posts and discussions that
are repeated over and over and over with no other
purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel
the need to say something, say it once and then move
on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get
your view out.

You may not bait/troll users. Bait / Trolling is
defined as posting with a clear intent to provoke
anger, incendiary posts, and behavior that results
in other users violating the CoC.

You may not bait, insult, flame, or otherwise
abuse a staff member. Staff members have to follow
the same rules, and should you have a problem with a
certain staff member, please contact a moderator or
the Forum Management Team.

You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in
HTML-enabled forums

You may not post graphically-disturbing images as
inline images (such that the images are displayed
when users view your post). However, you can link to
the images with a warning stating that the images
are graphically disturbing

You may not post in a manner that is harmful to
SWAT. For example, “*** forums suck. Go here!”
or posting confidential documents. If you do, the
post will be deleted and you will be banned.

You may not register multiple accounts with intent
to violate any part of this CoC.